Iran sentences detained US-based opposition leader to death for mosque bombing

A senior member of a USbased Iranian opposition group held by Iran and accused of orchestrating a deadly 2008 mosque bombing has been sentenced to death authorities said TuesdayIran says Jamshid Sharmahd a 67yearold IranianGerman national and US resident is the leader of the armed wing of a group advocating the restoration of the monarchy that was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic RevolutionHis family has said he was merely the spokesman for the opposition group and denied he was involved in any attacksThey accuse Iranian intelligence of abducting him from Dubai in 2020His hometown is Glendora CaliforniaGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the death sentence is absolutely unacceptable and that there would be a clear reaction without elaboratingShe said Sharmahd did not have even the beginning of a fair trial and that consular access and access to the trial had been repeatedly deniedAlso readOvernight protests rock Iranian citiesShe also said he had been arrested under highly questionable circumstances without elaboratingThe death sentence which can be appealed comes against the backdrop of months of antigovernment protests in Iran and a fierce crackdown on dissent Monarchists based outside Iran support the protests as do other groups and individuals with different ideologiesThe official website of Irans judiciary said Sharmahd was convicted of plotting terrorist activitiesHe was tried in a Revolutionary Court where proceedings are held behind closed doors and where rights groups say defendants are unable to choose their lawyers or see the evidence against themIranian authorities have accused him of planning a series of attacks including the 2008 bombing of the Hosseynieh Seyed alShohada Mosque in Shiraz in which 14 people were killed and more than 200 were woundedHe has also been accused of working with US intelligence and spying on Irans ballistic missile programmeState TV has said his group was also behind a 2010 bombing at Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinis mausoleum in Tehran that wounded several peopleIran says Sharmahd is the leader of Tondar the militant wing of the opposition group known as the Kingdom Assembly of Iran He had been previously targeted in an apparent Iranian assassination plot on US soil in 2009His family says he was passing through Dubai on his way to India for a business deal in July 2020 when he abruptly stopped responding to calls or messages from them Location data showed his phone leaving a hotel near the airport and traveling south across the border into neighbouring Oman and to the port of Sohar where the signal stoppedTwo days later Iran announced that Sharmahd had been captured in a complex operation and the Intelligence Ministry published a photo of him blindfoldedHis family says he was held in solitary confinement for more than 18 months before being put on trial in February of last yearA Middle East expert with Amnesty Internationals German branch Katja MuumlllerFahlbusch said the organisation is appalled by the death sentenceShe said in a statement that the proceedings were a show trial and that Iran withheld numerous rights from him including the free choice of a lawyerMuumlllerFahlbusch added that Sharmahds family has had as good as no contact with him for over two years no one knows what prison he is in and we have to assume that he has been a victim of tortureIn addition his health has worsened dramatically in custody and Iranian authorities have systematically denied him access to appropriate medical care she saidWestern officials believe Iran runs intelligence operations in Dubai and keeps tabs on the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living in the cosmopolitan city in the United Arab Emirates which is a US allyIran is suspected of kidnapping and later killing BritishIranian national Abbas Yazdi in Dubai in 2013 though Tehran has denied involvementThe US State Department runs its Iran Regional Presence Office in Dubai where diplomats monitor Iranian media reports and talk to IraniansIran has been rocked by more than five months of antigovernment protests ignited by the death of a 22yearold woman who was detained by the morality police for allegedly violating Irans strict Islamic dress codeThe protesters have called for the overthrow of the countrys ruling clericsSecurity forces have attacked the demonstrators with live ammunition bird shot and batons rights groups say At least 530 protesters have been killed and nearly 20000 people have been arrested according to Human Rights Activists in Iran a group monitoring the unrestIranian authorities have blamed the protests on hostile foreign powers without providing evidence and have not released official figures for those killed or arrestedIran has executed four men accused of violence linked to the protests and activists say at least 16 others have been sentenced to deathThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability 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